Title 47, Property

No future interest can be defeated or barred by any alienation or other act of the owner of the intermediate or precedent interest, nor by any destruction of such precedent interest by forfeiture, surrender, merger, or otherwise, except as provided by section 47-02-32, or when a …

No future interest, valid in its creation, is defeated by the determination of the precedent interest before the happening of the contingency on which the future interest is limited to take effect, but should such contingency afterwards happen, the future interest takes effect in…

The owner of a life estate may use the land in the same manner as the owner of a fee simple, except that the owner of a life estate must do no act to the injury of the inheritance.

The owner of a life estate must keep the buildings and fences in repair from ordinary waste and must pay the taxes and other annual charges and a just proportion of extraordinary assessments benefiting the whole inheritance.

The income of property, as the term is used in this title, includes the rents and profits of real property, the interest of money, dividends upon stock, and other produce of personal property.

Dispositions of the income of property to accrue and to be received at any time subsequent to the execution of the instrument creating such dispositions are governed by the rules prescribed in this title in relation to future interests.

When, in consequence of a valid limitation of a future interest, there is a suspension of the power of alienation or of the ownership, during the continuation of which the income is undisposed of, and no valid direction for its accumulation is given, such income belongs to the pe…

When a minor for whose benefit an accumulation has been directed is destitute of other sufficient means of support and education, the district court, upon application, may direct a suitable sum to be applied thereto out of the fund.

Real property within this state is governed by the law of this state.

Estates in real property in respect to the duration of their enjoyment are: 1. Estates of inheritance or perpetual estates; 2. Estates for life; 3. Estates for years; or 4. Estates at will.

Estates of inheritance and for life are called estates of freehold. Estates for years are chattels real. Estates at will are chattel interests, but are not liable as such to sale on execution.

Every estate of inheritance is a fee, and every such estate, when not defeasible or conditional, is a fee simple or an absolute fee.

Estates tail are abolished and every estate which would be adjudged a fee tail at common law is a fee simple, and if no valid remainder is limited thereon, is a fee simple absolute.

Where a remainder in fee is limited upon any estate which, by the common law, would be adjudged a fee tail, such remainder is valid as a contingent limitation upon a fee and vests in possession on the death of the first taker, without issue living at the time of that person's dea…

An estate during the life of a third person, whether limited to heirs or otherwise, is a freehold.

A future estate may be limited by the act of the party to commence in possession at a future day, either without the intervention of a precedent estate, on the termination by lapse of time, or otherwise, of a precedent estate created at the same time.

A reversion is the residue of an estate left by operation of law in the grantor or the grantor's successors or in the successors of a testator commencing in possession on the determination of a particular estate granted or devised.

When a future estate, other than a reversion, is dependent on a precedent estate, it may be called a remainder and may be created and transferred by that name.

Subject to the provisions of this chapter and of chapters 47-01, 47-02, and 47-03, a freehold estate, as well as a chattel real, may be created to commence at a future day; an estate for life may be created in a term of years and a remainder limited thereon; a remainder of a free…

A remainder may be limited on a contingency which, in case it should happen, will operate to abridge or determine the precedent estate. Every such remainder shall be deemed a conditional limitation.

When a remainder is limited to the heirs, or heirs of the body, of a person to whom a life estate in the same property is given, the persons who, on the termination of the life estate are the successors or heirs of the body of the owner for life, are entitled to take by virtue of…

When a remainder on an estate for life or for years is not limited on a contingency defeating or avoiding such precedent estate, it shall be deemed intended to take effect only on the death of the first taker or the expiration by lapse of time of such term of years.

A person having an estate in fee, in remainder, or reversion may maintain an action for an injury done to the inheritance, notwithstanding an intervening estate for life or years and although after its commission the person's estate is transferred and the person has no interest i…

A general or special power of appointment does not prevent the vesting of a future estate limited to take effect in case such power is not executed.

Certain covenants contained in grants of estates in real property are appurtenant to such estates and pass with them so as to bind the assigns of the covenantor and to vest in the assigns of the covenantee in the same manner as if they personally had entered into them. Such coven…

The only covenants which run with the land are those specified in this chapter and those which are incidental thereto.

A covenant running with the land executed after August 1, 1997, must contain provisions addressing the modification of the covenant. If a covenant running with the land does not contain provisions relating to the modification of the covenant, eighty-five percent of all of the own…

All covenants contained in a grant of an estate in real property, which are made for the direct benefit of the property or some part of it then in existence, run with the land. Such covenants include covenants: 1. Of warranty; 2. For quiet enjoyment; 3. For further assurance on t…

A covenant for the addition of some new thing to real property, or for the direct benefit of some part of the property not then in existence or annexed thereto, when contained in a grant of an estate in such property and made by the covenantor expressly for the covenantor's assig…

A covenant running with the land binds only those who acquire the whole estate of the covenantor in some part of the property.

A person, merely by reason of having acquired an estate subject to a covenant running with the land, is not liable for breach of the covenant before the person acquired the estate, or after the person has parted with it or ceased to enjoy its benefits.

When several persons, holding by several titles, are subject to the burden or are entitled to the benefit of a covenant running with the land, it must be apportioned among them according to the value of the property subject to it held by them respectively, if such value can be as…

No covenants of warranty shall be considered as broken by the existence of a highway, railway, or a right of way for either, upon the land conveyed by any instrument of conveyance, unless otherwise particularly specified in the deed. Whenever in any instrument of conveyance deliv…

Notwithstanding any provision in a covenant, a covenant running with the land may not prohibit the outdoor display of a political yard sign by the owner or a resident on the owner's property within sixty days before any primary, general, or special election. A covenant may includ…

The following land burdens or servitudes upon lands may be attached to other land as incidents or appurtenances and then are called easements: 1. The right of pasturage. 2. The right of fishing. 3. The right of way. 4. The right of taking water, wood, minerals, and other things. …

Any easement obtained for the purpose of exposure of a solar energy device to the direct rays of the sun shall be created in writing and shall be subject to the same conveyancing and instrument recording requirements as other easements. The term "solar energy device" means the de…

Any instrument creating a solar easement shall include, but shall not be limited to, all of the following: 1. The vertical and horizontal angles, expressed in degrees, at which the solar easement extends over the real property subject to the solar easement. 2. Any terms, conditio…

The following land burdens or servitudes upon land may be granted and held, though not attached to land: 1. The right to pasture, and of fishing. 2. The right of a seat in church. 3. The right of burial. 4. The right of taking rents and tolls. 5. The right of way. 6. The right of…

Real property easements, servitudes, or any nonappurtenant restrictions on the use of real property, which become binding after July 1, 1977, shall be subject to the requirements of this section. These requirements are deemed a part of any agreement for such interests in real pro…

A dominant tenement means the land to which an easement is attached.

A servient tenement means the land upon which a burden or servitude has been placed.

A servitude can be created only by one who has a vested estate in the servient tenement.

A servitude thereon cannot be held by the owner of the servient tenement.

The extent of a servitude is determined by the terms of the grant or the nature of the enjoyment by which it was acquired.

In case of partition of the dominant tenement, the burden must be apportioned according to the division of the dominant tenement, but not in such a way as to increase the burden upon the servient tenement.

The owner of a future estate in a dominant tenement may use easements attached thereto for the purpose of viewing waste, demanding rent, or removing an obstruction to the enjoyment of such easement, although such tenement is occupied by a tenant.